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May 1920 Three years after he sen’ed as the Navy’s representative on an Army-Navy board convened to recommend postwar policies and programs for U.S. air services, and one year after the NC-4 made the first transAtlantic flight, Commander G. C. Westervelt examines the “Possibilities of Trans-Pacific Flight.’’ It takes him 40 pages to conclude that a plane that
might be able to fly the long way to Tipperary—1,600 nautical miles
won't be able to hack the 4,200 miles from Oregon to Yokohama. But a rigid airship might. A World War I German rigid, dispatched from Bulgaria to German East Africa and recalled by wireless over Khartoum, logged" 4,000 miles in a 100-hour flight—and still had fuel for 60 more hours!
If Westervelt’s heavier-than-air words sometimes weigh us down, Captain Lyman A. Cotten buoys us with four forerunners of today's anecdotes. The best is about the chronically drunken Marine Private Shea. Five days absent over leave, Shea tells his colonel that he has spent the time caring for his sick wife and children and repairing their dilapidated quarters. Unmoved, the colonel says, “I will read you a letter I received from your wife this morning.” The letter describes how Shea beat his wife and children, broke furniture, and took their last penny.
Asked to explain, Shea responds, “Sir, the two biggest liars in the Corps are in this room right now. You see, I'm not married.”
May 1940—For most Americans, the “phony war” that was declared by England and France on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland will end on 10 May 1940 when Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands and Churchill replaces Chamberlain as British Prime Minister. In “Morale in the New World War,” Commander M. M. Witherspoon defines morale as the “ability to take it,” quoting the Duke of Wellington’s famous post-Waterloo remark, “The British were no braver than the French, but they were brave five minutes longer.” Still, he warns, no army ever had higher morale than the Poles and, despite their battle cry, “Berlin in three weeks!” it was they who were crushed in three weeks.
Witherspoon, an All-American football player who became a chaplain in World War I, is now an assistant to the Navy’s war plans officer. To plan for the mobilization he seems certain will come, he sifted the experience of the warring nations and consulted more than 400 leaders in the fields of religion, welfare, and recreation. Among the gems in this insightful article is the story about the Australian colonel who lined up his regiment for inspection by a British general. As the general approached, the colonel said to his men, “Now, for God’s sake—don’t call me ‘Bill’.”
May 1960 —Horatio Nelson’s civilian contemporary, Charles Dibdin, put words in Jack Tar’s mouth: “In every mess I find a friend, in every port a wife.” Major Reginald Hargreaves wrote last February about "Sweethearts and Wives,” who went to sea with their men in the age of sail. Charming old Reggie handled matters so deftly in this, his 17th Proceedings article, that one would think there would be nothing left to say. But one Comment- and-Discussion writer suggests that "Armies never had to contend with this problem, since land forces had always been accompanied by camp followers who cooked and otherwise attended to the men.” (British Army veteran Hargreaves, wounded in 1917, retired in 1919, returned to active service from 1939-1945, may not have liked hearing that from a U.S. Navy captain.)
Reggie had told about the baby bom to a Mrs. McKenzie on HMS Tremendous during a battle in 1794, and named in honor of the ship. A second C&D writer had read elsewhere about Tremendous McKenzie’s unusual start in life (he was carried on the muster roll in the rating of “baby”) and asks Hargreaves what became of him. Reggie patiently replies that he probably didn’t live to retire since, as Lord Nelson notes, the sailor of that day was “finished at 45, double-ruptured, raw with scurvy, and racked with agonizing pain after each meal.”
Clay Barrow
Lieutenant Brian R. Galvin, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Audrey B. DiLucente, U.S.
Naval Reserve
In addition to honoring this year’s essay and photo contest award winners (all of whom were identified with their photos in the April Proceedings), we were pleased to recognize our Business Associate of the Year, Barry Gabler of York Graphic Services; the Naval Institute Press Author of the Year, Colonel John Grider Miller, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), author of The Bridge at Dong Ha', and Proceedings Author of the Year, Colonel W. Hays Parks, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
A report on the meeting will be included in the issue of Membership News that will be mailed with the July Proceedings.
Carrier Aviation Symposium Launches in May
On 10-11 May 1990 the U.S. Naval Institute and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation will cosponsor their fourth annual Naval Aviation Symposium, "Carrier Aviation: Past, Present, and Future,” in Pensacola, Florida, the cradle of Naval Aviation.
We expect more than 3,400 people to join us. To register or for further information please call the museum directly at 1-800-327-5002.
We Need YOU!
The secret weapon in any fundraising effort is a dedicated group of volunteers. We are already fortunate to have enlisted many hard workers who have suggested and followed leads in both the private and corporate sectors.
The Naval Institute is approximately one quarter of the way to its goal of raising $7.4 million to renovate a new headquarters building and to endow four edu- cational/historical programs.
If you would be willing to volunteer any of your time and energy to the Campaign for the Naval Institute, we would certainly be grateful for your assistance. Please call the Development Office at 301-268-6110, extension 267.
CACTUS Remembered—The Air War for Guadalcanal
On 20-22 April 1990, the U.S. Naval Institute cosponsored a symposium and exhibit with the Admiral Nimitz Foundation, the Texas Parks and Wildlife De-
Proceedings / Naval Review 1990